Eek! I'm thrilled to bring you a conversation I had this week with Ian Sanderson. Ian Sanderson is a member of the Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. He is committed to serving people from all backgrounds as they develop and elevate their awareness—of themselves, their work, their relationships, and the world—through innovative synthesis and application of Indigenous, Eastern, and Western thought. He facilitates individual and group learning processes, serving a diversity of people and organizations whether in conference rooms, schools, or in a forest. He has 25 years of outdoor and experiential education experience, applying principles of tracking and other natural-world skills to present day situations. He owns the Boulder Quest Center, a martial arts dojo where he teaches and trains in the art of To-Shin Do ninjutsu; a modern application of timeless principles of how to intelligently handle the challenges likely to arise in our societies today. Utilizing reality-based empowerment training, he coaches students in ways to promote peace, security, well-being, and building the kind of resiliency and perseverance that leads to life mastery. He holds the rank of Yondawn- 4th-Degree Black Belt, and is also a student and practitioner of the Tendai and Shugendo Buddhist traditions of Japan since 2007 and took his deshi vows in 2017. Ian has also taught at Naropa University for over 10 years and is a Senior Adjunct Faculty member in the Environmental Studies Program.
We hit on topics from breaking patterns to embodiment to disconnection because of covid to fear-based living, to the complication of a pendulum-swinging, reactive culture around very, very important justice issues. We sneak in a few things about teaching, too. :)
Links
- Boulder Quest Center to find out more about one of many aspects of Ian and to get in touch with him.
- Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta
- We are Verbs Community (use code: PODCAST for $1 for the first month!)